Chapter 3: Trouble

*I do NOT own the CLAMP characters*

(Akira's POV)

The first thought to enter my brain as I slowly regained my consciousness was, OW. It hurt, it hurt to move, to swallow, even to open my eyes, but I did so anyway, trying to ignore the pain. As I opened my eyes I could see that I was inside what looked to be a hotel room, and was in a bed. I saw that there was no television, no phone, and no electronic devices at all. I sat up and realized I was somehow wearing what looked like pajamas.

As I was looking around a man entered and, behind him, Jake.

I then realized that the man in front of Jake must be his boss. As I was trying to figure out what was going on the man started to speak.

"Hello, Akira" he said with an English accent "my name is Jim and I believe you know my cousin, Jake, yes?"

"Yes" I answered

"Good. I'm sorry to have to bring you here the way I did but I just knew you would refuse me if I asked you here because of what happened a few weeks ago."

"Well, you were right."

"I know that. Now onto the why I brought you here. You see, after seeing you in action with both math and your 'night job' I decided that I wanted you to come and work for me as both my personal accountant and my personal thief."

"Why would I do that?"

"if you don't then both your mothers will never set foot in Japan again. They will be cut off from you forever and all your friends will be hunted down and taken care of one by one in front of your eyes, oh I almost forgot, whether you accept of decline, one wrong move and you will be dead and your body left for everyone who cares about you to see."

After that Jin smiled and left me saying I had until sunset tomorrow to give him an answer. When he was gone I got up and opened the curtain only to see that I was on one of the uppermost floors in one of the tallest buildings around. I also noted that the room had video cameras in it to watch me.

After a while I felt tired and got back into bed. Soon after that I was asleep, dreaming of tomorrow.

(Nokoru's POV)

Suoh and I were trying to find out where they took Akira when there was a knock at the door. Suoh went to answer it, and found Utako waiting outside.

As she came in she looked around and asked "Where's Ijyuin?"

When nobody answered she looked at me, worry plain on her face as she asked again "where's Akira?'

When she used his name, I knew we had to answer, so I said "We don't know right now." As I said this Suoh looked down, upset. This just caused Utako to worry more.

"What do you mean you don't know!?"

"I mean, as we were heading home last night some men surrounded us and took Akira after they knocked him out with stun gun."

By now she had started to cry and asked us to tell her everything that happened, so we did and when we finished she was crying very hard and asking the same question we have been: "Why Akira?"

When she had finished crying, she said she wanted to help so we let her, who knows she might just help.

After a few hours of talking and searching, we still haven't found anything. I was losing hope fast when the phone started to ring.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Nokoru Imonoyama I presume." said a voice that was altered by a machine.

"Yes. Might I ask who is calling?"

"That is unimportant right now. What is important is that I can help you get your treasurer back."

"You know where he is?!"

"Yes. But you must hurry."

"Is he ok?"

"Yes, he is fine but if you don't get to him by sundown tomorrow, he will be flown to America and hidden somewhere. Once that is done I won't be able to help you and he will be near impossible to find."

"Who did this?"

"His name is Jim. He is a powerful man in America."

"What does he want with Akira?"

"Once he learned of his talents he decided to make him his personal chef, accountant, and do many unpleasant jobs for him. So you remember when he kept getting those calls last week?"

"Yes. But how do you know about that?"

"Again that is unimportant right now. Jim was the one behind those calls, he was trying to persuade Akira to join him but every time he refused saying he would never join him. When Jim heard that he got very mad and stopped being nice, he decided that he would get Akira no matter what."

He told me all the rest he knew about Jim, like how he was powerful because he was the worst kind of criminal but nobody could ever prove he was the one doing it. After he was done he told me where I could find Akira. I thanked him and was about to hang up when I thought of something. "Why are you helping us?' I asked.

He paused but finally answered "He is like a son to me, I don't want to see him get hurt. I am also a friend of his father's. Please, I don't want him to be hurt."

With that said he hung up. As I put down the phone I saw that Suoh and Utako had guessed what was said on the phone. They listened as I told them everything I found out.

When I was done I showed them the sheet of paper I wrote the address on and asked Suoh to find out all he could about it. As he went to do so I turned to Utako and saw fresh tears in her eyes.

"Don't worry" I said, "we will find him and get him back safely."

"I know, but I'm still worried about him."

"So are we. We won't let anything happen to him."

She smiled up at me saying "I know."

After a few minutes Suoh announced he had everything. We looked over the data and started to make a plan.

By the time we were done, it was dark outside.

"Let's get some sleep." I said, "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

We all agreed and went to the spare rooms in the building but none of us slept much, we were all too anxious about tomorrow.